Technology Entrepreneurship: Role of Government in Enabling Start-up Support Ecosystem

Abstract

With the emergence of knowledge-driven economy, entrepreneurial process turned out to be technology driven (Malerba, 2010). Drastic reduction in lifecycle of technologies, turbulence, and uncertainty forced entrepreneur to develop newer strategies. The requirement to stay competitive and survive the rapid technological changes led to the emergence of competition to develop or acquire newer technologies. Thus, the traditional entrepreneurship theory driven by market evolved to a newer knowledge-driven and technology intensive theory of entrepreneurship. Technology entrepreneurship needs to be critically defined and distinguished from mainstream entrepreneurship. It involves rigorous experimentation, catering to the nascent markets through novel products. The development of such technology-based innovations is largely affected by the support system around them which includes institutional setups. With the regional innovation surveys in place, role of innovation ecosystem in supporting technology entrepreneurship has been well documented and validated (EIS, 2017). OECD (2010) has indicated various parameters which are crucial in enabling technology-driven entrepreneurship. Several studies imply that a competitive ecosystem equipped with technological and financial resources supported by mentors is an ideal scenario to accelerate technology entrepreneurship (NBIA, 2007; Hackett and Dilts, 2004; Grimaldi and Grandi, 2007; Aernoudt, 2004). The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of various nodal institutions through the role they play in supporting growth of their incubatee ventures. The study also aims to capture the need of handholding for startups as well as the government policy initiatives promoting technology business development. The researchers of this study try to validate the performance indicators of business incubation process derived from the literature reviewed, which can be used in Indian scenario.